User Equipment Assisted Inter-Sector Interference Avoidance

ABSTRACT

Certain aspects of the present disclosure provide techniques for reducing inter-sector interference. A method generally includes transmitting, in a multi-user multiple-input and multiple-output (MU-MIMO) mode, first beamformed transmissions using a first beam to a first user equipment (UE) in a first sector and second beamformed transmissions using a second beam to a second UE in a second sector, wherein the BS is configured to control a plurality of sectors comprising the first sector and the second sector, receiving, from the first UE, a feedback report indicating inter-sector interference encountered by the first UE in the first sector due to the second beamformed transmissions, and taking one or more actions based on the feedback report to reduce the inter-sector interference encountered by the first UE in the first sector.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

The present application is a continuation application of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 16/536,130, filed Aug. 8, 2019, which claimspriority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/717,438, filed Aug. 10,2018, which are assigned to the assignee of the present application andhereby expressly incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.

BACKGROUND Field of the Disclosure

Aspects of the present disclosure relate to wireless communications, andmore particularly, to techniques for reducing inter-sector interference.

Description of Related Art

Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide varioustelecommunication services such as telephony, video, data, messaging,broadcasts, etc. These wireless communication systems may employmultiple-access technologies capable of supporting communication withmultiple users by sharing available system resources (e.g., bandwidth,transmit power, etc.). Examples of such multiple-access systems include3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE)systems, LTE Advanced (LTE-A) systems, code division multiple access(CDMA) systems, time division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequencydivision multiple access (FDMA) systems, orthogonal frequency divisionmultiple access (OFDMA) systems, single-carrier frequency divisionmultiple access (SC-FDMA) systems, and time division synchronous codedivision multiple access (TD-SCDMA) systems, to name a few.

In some examples, a wireless multiple-access communication system mayinclude a number of base stations (BSs), which are each capable ofsimultaneously supporting communication for multiple communicationdevices, otherwise known as user equipments (UEs). In an LTE or LTE-Anetwork, a set of one or more base stations may define an eNodeB (eNB).In other examples (e.g., in a next generation, a new radio (NR), or 5Gnetwork), a wireless multiple access communication system may include anumber of distributed units (DUs) (e.g., edge units (EUs), edge nodes(ENs), radio heads (RHs), smart radio heads (SRHs), transmissionreception points (TRPs), etc.) in communication with a number of centralunits (CUs) (e.g., central nodes (CNs), access node controllers (ANCs),etc.), where a set of one or more distributed units, in communicationwith a central unit, may define an access node (e.g., which may bereferred to as a base station, 5G NB, next generation NodeB (gNB orgNodeB), TRP, etc.). A base station or distributed unit may communicatewith a set of UEs on downlink channels (e.g., for transmissions from abase station or to a UE) and uplink channels (e.g., for transmissionsfrom a UE to a base station or distributed unit).

These multiple access technologies have been adopted in varioustelecommunication standards to provide a common protocol that enablesdifferent wireless devices to communicate on a municipal, national,regional, and even global level. New Radio (NR) (e.g., 5G) is an exampleof an emerging telecommunication standard. NR is a set of enhancementsto the LTE mobile standard promulgated by 3GPP. It is designed to bettersupport mobile broadband Internet access by improving spectralefficiency, lowering costs, improving services, making use of newspectrum, and better integrating with other open standards using OFDMAwith a cyclic prefix (CP) on the downlink (DL) and on the uplink (UL).To these ends, NR supports beamforming, multiple-input multiple-output(MIMO) antenna technology, and carrier aggregation.

However, as the demand for mobile broadband access continues toincrease, there exists a need for further improvements in NR and LTEtechnology. Preferably, these improvements should be applicable to othermulti-access technologies and the telecommunication standards thatemploy these technologies.

BRIEF SUMMARY

The systems, methods, and devices of the disclosure each have severalaspects, no single one of which is solely responsible for its desirableattributes. Without limiting the scope of this disclosure as expressedby the claims which follow, some features will now be discussed briefly.After considering this discussion, and particularly after reading thesection entitled “Detailed Description” one will understand how thefeatures of this disclosure provide advantages that include improvedcommunications (such as reduced inter-sector interference frombeamformed downlink transmissions) between base stations and userequipment in a wireless network.

Certain aspects provide a method for wireless communication by a basestation. The method generally includes transmitting, in a multi-usermultiple-input and multiple-output (MU-MIMO) mode, first beamformedtransmissions using a first beam to a first user equipment (UE) in afirst sector and second beamformed transmissions using a second beam toa second UE in a second sector, wherein the BS is configured to controla plurality of sectors comprising the first sector and the secondsector, receiving, from the first UE, a feedback report indicatinginter-sector interference encountered by the first UE in the firstsector due to the second beamformed transmissions, and taking one ormore actions based on the feedback report to reduce the inter-sectorinterference encountered by the first UE in the first sector.

Certain aspects provide a method for wireless communication by a userequipment. The method generally includes receiving, in a first sector,first beamformed transmissions transmitted via a first beam from a basestation (BS), receiving, in the first sector, interfering beamformedtransmissions transmitted via a second beam from the BS, the interferingbeamformed transmissions being associated with the second beam and witha second sector, wherein the BS is configured to control a plurality ofsectors comprising the first sector and the second sector, generating afeedback report indicating inter-sector interference encountered by thefirst UE in the first sector due to the interfering beamformedtransmissions, and reporting the feedback report to the BS.

Certain aspects provide an apparatus for wireless communication. Theapparatus generally includes a transmitter configured to transmit, in aMU-MIMO mode, first beamformed transmissions using a first beam to afirst user equipment (UE) in a first sector and second beamformedtransmissions using a second beam to a second UE in a second sector,wherein the apparatus is configured to control a plurality of sectorscomprising the first sector and the second sector. The apparatus alsoincludes a receiver configured to receive, from the first UE, a feedbackreport indicating inter-sector interference encountered by the first UEin the first sector due to the second beamformed transmissions. Theapparatus further includes a processing system configured to take one ormore actions based on the feedback report to reduce the inter-sectorinterference encountered by the first UE in the first sector.

Certain aspects provide an apparatus for wireless communication. Theapparatus generally includes a receiver configured to receive, in afirst sector, first beamformed transmissions transmitted via a firstbeam from a base station (BS), and receive, in the first sector,interfering beamformed transmissions transmitted via a second beam fromthe BS, the interfering beamformed transmissions being associated withthe second beam and with a second sector, wherein the BS is configuredto control a plurality of sectors comprising the first sector and thesecond sector. The apparatus also includes a processing systemconfigured to generate a feedback report indicating inter-sectorinterference encountered by the apparatus in the first sector due to theinterfering beamformed transmissions. The apparatus further includes atransmitter configured to transmit the feedback report to the BS.

Aspects of the present disclosure also provide various apparatuses,means, and computer program products corresponding to the methods andoperations described above.

To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, the one or moreaspects comprise the features hereinafter fully described andparticularly pointed out in the claims. The following description andthe appended drawings set forth in detail certain illustrative featuresof the one or more aspects. These features are indicative, however, ofbut a few of the various ways in which the principles of various aspectsmay be employed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

So that the manner in which the above-recited features of the presentdisclosure can be understood in detail, a more particular description,briefly summarized above, may be had by reference to aspects, some ofwhich are illustrated in the drawings. It is to be noted, however, thatthe appended drawings illustrate only certain typical aspects of thisdisclosure and are therefore not to be considered limiting of its scope,for the description may admit to other equally effective aspects.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram conceptually illustrating an exampletelecommunications system, in accordance with certain aspects of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram conceptually illustrating a design of anexample base station (BS) and user equipment (UE), in accordance withcertain aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating example operations for reducinginter-sector interference, in accordance with certain aspects of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating example operations for reducinginter-sector interference, in accordance with certain aspects of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 5A illustrates an example coverage cell where a UE is encounteringinter-sector interference, in accordance with certain aspects of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 5B illustrates an example coverage cell where various actions aretaken to reduce inter-sector interference, in accordance with certainaspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 6 illustrates a communications device that may include variouscomponents configured to perform operations for the techniques disclosedherein in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 7 illustrates a communications device that may include variouscomponents configured to perform operations for the techniques disclosedherein in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

To facilitate understanding, identical reference numerals have beenused, where possible, to designate identical elements that are common tothe figures. It is contemplated that elements disclosed in one aspectmay be beneficially utilized on other aspects without specificrecitation.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Aspects of the present disclosure provide apparatus, methods, processingsystems, and computer readable mediums for reducing inter-sectorinterference encountered by a UE based on feedback provided by the UE.For example, a UE in a first sector may monitor interfering beamformedtransmissions from a BS to another UE located in a second sector. The UEin the first sector may provide feedback to the BS with regard to theinter-sector interference (such as the interfering beamformedtransmissions), and the BS may take one or more actions to reduce theinter-sector interference based on the feedback received from the UE asfurther described herein.

The following description provides examples, and is not limiting of thescope, applicability, or examples set forth in the claims. Changes maybe made in the function and arrangement of elements discussed withoutdeparting from the scope of the disclosure. Various examples may omit,substitute, or add various procedures or components as appropriate. Forinstance, the methods described may be performed in an order differentfrom that described, and various steps may be added, omitted, orcombined. Also, features described with respect to some examples may becombined in some other examples. For example, an apparatus may beimplemented or a method may be practiced using any number of the aspectsset forth herein. In addition, the scope of the disclosure is intendedto cover such an apparatus or method which is practiced using otherstructure, functionality, or structure and functionality in addition to,or other than, the various aspects of the disclosure set forth herein.It should be understood that any aspect of the disclosure disclosedherein may be embodied by one or more elements of a claim. The word“exemplary” is used herein to mean “serving as an example, instance, orillustration.” Any aspect described herein as “exemplary” is notnecessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over otheraspects.

The techniques described herein may be used for various wirelesscommunication technologies, such as LTE, CDMA, TDMA, FDMA, OFDMA,SC-FDMA and other networks. The terms “network” and “system” are oftenused interchangeably. A CDMA network may implement a radio technologysuch as Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (UTRA), cdma2000, etc. UTRAincludes Wideband CDMA (WCDMA) and other variants of CDMA. cdma2000covers IS-2000, IS-95 and IS-856 standards. A TDMA network may implementa radio technology such as Global System for Mobile Communications(GSM). An OFDMA network may implement a radio technology such as NR(e.g. 5G RA), Evolved UTRA (E-UTRA), Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), IEEE802.11 (Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), IEEE 802.20, Flash-OFDMA, etc. UTRAand E-UTRA are part of Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS).

New Radio (NR) is an emerging wireless communications technology underdevelopment in conjunction with the 5G Technology Forum (5GTF). 3GPPLong Term Evolution (LTE) and LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) are releases of UMTSthat use E-UTRA. UTRA, E-UTRA, UMTS, LTE, LTE-A and GSM are described indocuments from an organization named “3rd Generation PartnershipProject” (3GPP). cdma2000 and UMB are described in documents from anorganization named “3rd Generation Partnership Project 2” (3GPP2). Thetechniques described herein may be used for the wireless networks andradio technologies mentioned above as well as other wireless networksand radio technologies. For clarity, while aspects may be describedherein using terminology commonly associated with 3G and/or 4G wirelesstechnologies, aspects of the present disclosure can be applied in othergeneration-based communication systems, such as 5G and later, includingNR technologies.

New radio (NR) access (e.g., 5G technology) may support various wirelesscommunication services, such as enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB)targeting wide bandwidth (e.g., 80 MHz or beyond), millimeter wave (mmW)targeting high carrier frequency (e.g., 25 GHz or beyond), massivemachine type communications MTC (mMTC) targeting non-backward compatibleMTC techniques, and/or mission critical targeting ultra-reliablelow-latency communications (URLLC). These services may include latencyand reliability requirements. These services may also have differenttransmission time intervals (TTI) to meet respective quality of service(QoS) requirements. In addition, these services may co-exist in the samesubframe.

Example Wireless Communications System

FIG. 1 illustrates an example wireless communication network 100 inwhich aspects of the present disclosure may be performed. The wirelesscommunication network 100 may be a New Radio (NR) or 5G network thatprovides UE assisted reduction of inter-sector interference. Forexample, the UE 120 a may provide feedback to the BS 110 a with regardto inter-sector interference encountered by the UE 120 a. In certainaspects, the inter-sector interference encountered by the UE 120 a maybe from beamformed transmissions from the BS 110 a to the UE 120 b. TheBS 110 a may take one or more actions as further described herein toreduce the inter-sector interference based on the feedback from the UE120 a. For instance, the BS 110 a may identify the beam that is causingthe interference and adjust parameters associated (e.g., a transmitpower of the beam) with the beam to reduce the inter-sectorinterference.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, the wireless network 100 may include a numberof base stations (BSs) 110 and other network entities. A BS may be astation that communicates with user equipment (UEs). Each BS 110 mayprovide communication coverage for a particular geographic area. In3GPP, the term “cell” can refer to a coverage area of a Node B (NB)and/or a Node B subsystem serving this coverage area, depending on thecontext in which the term is used. In NR systems, the term “cell” andnext generation NodeB (gNB), new radio base station (NR BS), 5G NB,access point (AP), or transmission reception point (TRP) may beinterchangeable. In some examples, a cell may not necessarily bestationary, and the geographic area of the cell may move according tothe location of a mobile BS. In some examples, the base stations may beinterconnected to one another and/or to one or more other base stationsor network nodes (not shown) in wireless communication network 100through various types of backhaul interfaces, such as a direct physicalconnection, a wireless connection, a virtual network, or the like usingany suitable transport network.

In general, any number of wireless networks may be deployed in a givengeographic area. Each wireless network may support a particular radioaccess technology (RAT) and may operate on one or more frequencies. ARAT may also be referred to as a radio technology, an air interface,etc. A frequency may also be referred to as a carrier, a subcarrier, afrequency channel, a tone, a subband, etc. Each frequency may support asingle RAT in a given geographic area in order to avoid interferencebetween wireless networks of different RATs. In some cases, NR or 5G RATnetworks may be deployed.

A base station (BS) may provide communication coverage for a macro cell,a pico cell, a femto cell, and/or other types of cells. A macro cell maycover a relatively large geographic area (e.g., several kilometers inradius) and may allow unrestricted access by UEs with servicesubscription. A pico cell may cover a relatively small geographic areaand may allow unrestricted access by UEs with service subscription. Afemto cell may cover a relatively small geographic area (e.g., a home)and may allow restricted access by UEs having an association with thefemto cell (e.g., UEs in a Closed Subscriber Group (CSG), UEs for usersin the home, etc.). A BS for a macro cell may be referred to as a macroBS. ABS for a pico cell may be referred to as a pico BS. A BS for afemto cell may be referred to as a femto BS or a home BS. In the exampleshown in FIG. 1, the BSs 110 a, 110 b and 110 c may be macro BSs for themacro cells 102 a, 102 b and 102 c, respectively. The BS 110 x may be apico BS for a pico cell 102 x. The BSs 110 y and 110 z may be femto BSsfor the femto cells 102 y and 102 z, respectively. A BS may support oneor multiple (e.g., three) cells.

Wireless communication network 100 may also include relay stations. Arelay station is a station that receives a transmission of data and/orother information from an upstream station (e.g., a BS or a UE) andsends a transmission of the data and/or other information to adownstream station (e.g., a UE or a BS). A relay station may also be aUE that relays transmissions for other UEs. In the example shown in FIG.1, a relay station 110 r may communicate with the BS 110 a and a UE 120r in order to facilitate communication between the BS 110 a and the UE120 r. A relay station may also be referred to as a relay BS, a relay,etc.

Wireless network 100 may be a heterogeneous network that includes BSs ofdifferent types, e.g., macro BS, pico BS, femto BS, relays, etc. Thesedifferent types of BSs may have different transmit power levels,different coverage areas, and different impact on interference in thewireless network 100. For example, macro BS may have a high transmitpower level (e.g., 20 Watts) whereas pico BS, femto BS, and relays mayhave a lower transmit power level (e.g., 1 Watt).

Wireless communication network 100 may support synchronous orasynchronous operation. For synchronous operation, the BSs may havesimilar frame timing, and transmissions from different BSs may beapproximately aligned in time. For asynchronous operation, the BSs mayhave different frame timing, and transmissions from different BSs maynot be aligned in time. The techniques described herein may be used forboth synchronous and asynchronous operation.

A network controller 130 may couple to a set of BSs and providecoordination and control for these BSs. The network controller 130 maycommunicate with the BSs 110 via a backhaul. The BSs 110 may alsocommunicate with one another (e.g., directly or indirectly) via wirelessor wireline backhaul.

The UEs 120 (e.g., 120 x, 120 y, etc.) may be dispersed throughout thewireless network 100, and each UE may be stationary or mobile. A UE mayalso be referred to as a mobile station, a terminal, an access terminal,a subscriber unit, a station, a Customer Premises Equipment (CPE), acellular phone, a smart phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), awireless modem, a wireless communication device, a handheld device, alaptop computer, a cordless phone, a wireless local loop (WLL) station,a tablet computer, a camera, a gaming device, a netbook, a smartbook, anultrabook, an appliance, a medical device or medical equipment, abiometric sensor/device, a wearable device such as a smart watch, smartclothing, smart glasses, a smart wrist band, smart jewelry (e.g., asmart ring, a smart bracelet, etc.), an entertainment device (e.g., amusic device, a video device, a satellite radio, etc.), a vehicularcomponent or sensor, a smart meter/sensor, industrial manufacturingequipment, a global positioning system device, or any other suitabledevice that is configured to communicate via a wireless or wired medium.Some UEs may be considered machine-type communication (MTC) devices orevolved MTC (eMTC) devices. MTC and eMTC UEs include, for example,robots, drones, remote devices, sensors, meters, monitors, locationtags, etc., that may communicate with a BS, another device (e.g., remotedevice), or some other entity. A wireless node may provide, for example,connectivity for or to a network (e.g., a wide area network such asInternet or a cellular network) via a wired or wireless communicationlink. Some UEs may be considered Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices, whichmay be narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) devices.

Certain wireless networks (e.g., LTE) utilize orthogonal frequencydivision multiplexing (OFDM) on the downlink and single-carrierfrequency division multiplexing (SC-FDM) on the uplink. OFDM and SC-FDMpartition the system bandwidth into multiple (K) orthogonal subcarriers,which are also commonly referred to as tones, bins, etc. Each subcarriermay be modulated with data. In general, modulation symbols are sent inthe frequency domain with OFDM and in the time domain with SC-FDM. Thespacing between adjacent subcarriers may be fixed, and the total numberof subcarriers (K) may be dependent on the system bandwidth. Forexample, the spacing of the subcarriers may be 15 kHz and the minimumresource allocation (called a “resource block” (RB)) may be 12subcarriers (or 180 kHz). Consequently, the nominal Fast FourierTransfer (FFT) size may be equal to 128, 256, 512, 1024 or 2048 forsystem bandwidth of 1.25, 2.5, 5, 10, or 20 megahertz (MHz),respectively. The system bandwidth may also be partitioned intosubbands. For example, a subband may cover 1.08 MHz (i.e., 6 resourceblocks), and there may be 1, 2, 4, 8, or 16 subbands for systembandwidth of 1.25, 2.5, 5, 10 or 20 MHz, respectively.

While aspects of the examples described herein may be associated withLTE technologies, aspects of the present disclosure may be applicablewith other wireless communications systems, such as NR. NR may utilizeOFDM with a cyclic prefix (CP) on the uplink and downlink and includesupport for half-duplex operation using TDD. Beamforming may besupported and beam direction may be dynamically configured. MIMOtransmissions with precoding may also be supported. MIMO configurationsin the DL may support up to 8 transmit antennas with multi-layer DLtransmissions up to 8 streams and up to 2 streams per UE. Aggregation ofmultiple cells may be supported with up to 8 serving cells.

In some examples, access to the air interface may be scheduled, whereina scheduling entity (e.g., a base station) allocates resources forcommunication among some or all devices and equipment within its servicearea or cell. The scheduling entity may be responsible for scheduling,assigning, reconfiguring, and releasing resources for one or moresubordinate entities. That is, for scheduled communication, subordinateentities utilize resources allocated by the scheduling entity. Basestations are not the only entities that may function as a schedulingentity. In some examples, a UE may function as a scheduling entity andmay schedule resources for one or more subordinate entities (e.g., oneor more other UEs), and the other UEs may utilize the resourcesscheduled by the UE for wireless communication. In some examples, a UEmay function as a scheduling entity in a peer-to-peer (P2P) network,and/or in a mesh network. In a mesh network example, UEs may communicatedirectly with one another in addition to communicating with a schedulingentity.

In FIG. 1, a solid line with double arrows indicates desiredtransmissions between a UE and a serving BS, which is a BS designated toserve the UE on the downlink and/or uplink. A finely dashed line withdouble arrows indicates interfering transmissions between a UE and a BS.

FIG. 2 illustrates example components of BS 110 and UE 120 (as depictedin FIG. 1), which may be used to implement aspects of the presentdisclosure. For example, antennas 252, processors 266, 258, 264, and/orcontroller/processor 280 of the UE 120 and/or antennas 234, processors220, 230, 238, and/or controller/processor 240 of the BS 110 may be usedto perform the various techniques and methods described herein (such asthe operations depicted in FIGS. 3 and 4). For example, the UE 120 mayprovide feedback to the BS 110 with regard to inter-sector interferenceencountered by the UE 120. In certain aspects, the inter-sectorinterference encountered by the UE 120 may be from beamformedtransmissions from the BS 110 to another UE located in a differentsector than UE 120. The BS 110 may take one or more actions as furtherdescribed herein to reduce the inter-sector interference based on thefeedback from the UE 120. For instance, the BS 110 may identify the beamthat is causing the interference and adjust parameters associated (e.g.,a transmit power of the beam) with the beam to reduce the inter-sectorinterference.

At the BS 110, a transmit processor 220 may receive data from a datasource 212 and control information from a controller/processor 240. Thecontrol information may be for the physical broadcast channel (PBCH),physical control format indicator channel (PCFICH), physical hybrid ARQindicator channel (PHICH), physical downlink control channel (PDCCH),group common PDCCH (GC PDCCH), etc. The data may be for the physicaldownlink shared channel (PDSCH), etc. The processor 220 may process(e.g., encode and symbol map) the data and control information to obtaindata symbols and control symbols, respectively. The processor 220 mayalso generate reference symbols, e.g., for the primary synchronizationsignal (PSS), secondary synchronization signal (SSS), and cell-specificreference signal (CRS). A transmit (TX) multiple-input multiple-output(MIMO) processor 230 may perform spatial processing (e.g., precoding) onthe data symbols, the control symbols, and/or the reference symbols, ifapplicable, and may provide output symbol streams to the modulators(MODs) 232 a through 232 t. Each modulator 232 may process a respectiveoutput symbol stream (e.g., for OFDM, etc.) to obtain an output samplestream. Each modulator may further process (e.g., convert to analog,amplify, filter, and upconvert) the output sample stream to obtain adownlink signal. Downlink signals from modulators 232 a through 232 tmay be transmitted via the antennas 234 a through 234 t, respectively.

At the UE 120, the antennas 252 a through 252 r may receive the downlinksignals from the base station 110 and may provide received signals tothe demodulators (DEMODs) in transceivers 254 a through 254 r,respectively. Each demodulator 254 may condition (e.g., filter, amplify,downconvert, and digitize) a respective received signal to obtain inputsamples. Each demodulator may further process the input samples (e.g.,for OFDM, etc.) to obtain received symbols. A MIMO detector 256 mayobtain received symbols from all the demodulators 254 a through 254 r,perform MIMO detection on the received symbols if applicable, andprovide detected symbols. A receive processor 258 may process (e.g.,demodulate, deinterleave, and decode) the detected symbols, providedecoded data for the UE 120 to a data sink 260, and provide decodedcontrol information to a controller/processor 280.

On the uplink, at UE 120, a transmit processor 264 may receive andprocess data (e.g., for the physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH)) froma data source 262 and control information (e.g., for the physical uplinkcontrol channel (PUCCH) from the controller/processor 280. The transmitprocessor 264 may also generate reference symbols for a reference signal(e.g., for the sounding reference signal (SRS)). The symbols from thetransmit processor 264 may be precoded by a TX MIMO processor 266 ifapplicable, further processed by the demodulators in transceivers 254 athrough 254 r (e.g., for SC-FDM, etc.), and transmitted to the basestation 110. At the BS 110, the uplink signals from the UE 120 may bereceived by the antennas 234, processed by the modulators 232, detectedby a MIMO detector 236 if applicable, and further processed by a receiveprocessor 238 to obtain decoded data and control information sent by theUE 120. The receive processor 238 may provide the decoded data to a datasink 239 and the decoded control information to the controller/processor240.

The controllers/processors 240 and 280 may direct the operation at thebase station 110 and the UE 120, respectively. The processor 240 and/orother processors and modules at the BS 110 may perform or direct theexecution of processes for the techniques described herein. The memories242 and 282 may store data and program codes for BS 110 and UE 120,respectively. A scheduler 244 may schedule UEs for data transmission onthe downlink and/or uplink.

Example User Equipment Assisted Inter-Sector Interference Avoidance

In certain wireless communication systems (e.g., NR/mmWave networks),analog beamforming is used to improve the performance of transmissions(e.g., millimeter transmissions). The BS and UE may use directionalbeams to establish links (e.g., mmWave links). As an example, the BS mayuse large antenna arrays, which enable the BS to focus a tight/narrowanalog beam directed at the UE. Cellular networks can increase networkDL capacity if the BS transmits to multiple UEs simultaneously.Communicating with multiple UEs simultaneously is referred to asMulti-User MIMO (MU-MIMO). MU-MIMO enables the BS to serve simultaneousDL transmissions on different directional beams. In NR, with analogbeamforming, MU-MIMO uses “orthogonal” resources in spatial domain. Withmultiple simultaneous DL transmissions in the network, the UEs mayencounter increased interference, such as inter-sector interference,intra-sector interference, or inter-cell interference. The presentdisclosure describes techniques for reducing at least inter-sectorinterference encountered by a UE using feedback from the UE.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating example operations 300 that may beperformed, for example, by a base station (e.g., BS 110), for reducingdownlink inter-sector interference, in accordance with certain aspectsof the present disclosure.

Operations 300 may begin, at 302, where the BS transmits, in amulti-user multiple-input and multiple-output (MU-MIMO) mode, firstbeamformed transmissions using a first beam to a first user equipment(UE) in a first sector and second beamformed transmissions using asecond beam to a second UE in a second sector, wherein the BS isconfigured to control a plurality of sectors comprising the first sectorand the second sector. At 304, the BS receives, from the first UE, afeedback report indicating inter-sector interference encountered by thefirst UE in the first sector due to the second beamformed transmissions.At 306, the BS takes one or more actions based on the feedback report toreduce the inter-sector interference encountered by the first UE in thefirst sector.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating example operations 400 that may beperformed, for example, by a user equipment (e.g., UE 120), for reducinginter-sector interference, in accordance with certain aspects of thepresent disclosure.

Operations 400 may begin, at 402, where the UE receives, in a firstsector, first beamformed transmissions transmitted via a first beam froma base station (BS). At 404, the UE receives, in the first sector,interfering beamformed transmissions transmitted via a second beam fromthe BS, the interfering beamformed transmissions being associated withthe second beam and with a second sector, wherein the BS is configuredto control a plurality of sectors comprising the first sector and thesecond sector. At 406, the UE generates a feedback report indicatinginter-sector interference encountered by the first UE in the firstsector due to the interfering beamformed transmissions. At 408, the UEreports the feedback report to the BS.

In certain aspects, each of the beamformed transmissions may provide orindicate a beam index associated with the beam and/or a sector indexassociated with the sector. The beam index may be a unique identifierlinked to the beam used for one of the beamformed transmissions, and thesector index may be a unique identifier for the sector from where thebeamformed transmission was transmitted. In aspects, the beam index andsector index may be explicitly or implicitly indicated in the beamformedtransmissions. For example, control signaling information (e.g., radioresource control (RRC) message, medium access control (MAC) controlelement (MAC-CE) message, or a downlink control information (DCI)message) may be encoded in the beamformed transmissions with the beamindex and sector index. As another example, the beam index and/or sectorindex may be implicitly indicated based on phase or frequency variationsof the signal used to transmit the beamformed transmission.

In certain aspects, the BS may indicate, to the UE (e.g., the first UEof operations 300), the beamformed transmissions (e.g., the secondbeamformed transmissions of operations 300) that are simultaneouslytransmitted with transmissions to the UE. The indication of thebeamformed transmissions may be provided by a scheduling control messagevia a DCI message, MAC-CE message, or RRC message, for example. Forinstance, the BS may transmit, to the UE, a scheduling control messagethat indicates a beam index associated with each of the beamformedtransmissions and a sector index associated with each of the beamformedtransmissions. As another example, at 302, the BS may transmit, to thefirst UE, the first beamformed transmissions with a scheduling controlmessage that indicates a first beam index associated with the firstbeam, a first sector index associated with the first sector and thefirst beam, a second beam index associated with the second beam, and asecond sector index associated with the second sector and the secondbeam.

The beamformed transmissions may include various types of transmissions.As examples, the beamformed transmissions may include a beam trainingtransmission, a beam management transmission, a control transmission, ascheduling transmission, or a data transmission. That is, the beamformedtransmissions may be from a beam training operation, beam managementoperation, or a data link. The beamformed transmissions may also includevarious types of synchronization signals or reference signals, such as achannel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) or a demodulationreference signal (DM-RS). In aspects, the sector antennas may bearranged in different azimuthal orientations (e.g., 120° spacings). Forexample, the first beamformed transmissions at 402 may be transmittedvia a first sector antenna that is arranged in a different azimuthalorientation than a second sector antenna used for transmitting theinterfering beamformed transmissions.

The feedback report may provide information related to the downlinkinter-sector interference encountered by the UE. The UE may determinethe beams to include in the feedback report, at 406, based on thescheduling control message received at 402 and/or the interferingbeamformed transmissions received at 404. For instance, the feedbackreport may provide one or more received signal powers of interferingbeamformed transmissions, a beam index associated with each of thereceived signal powers, and/or a sector index associated with each ofreceived signal powers. The received signal power may be an indicationof the signal power of interfering beamformed transmission measured bythe UE such as a received signal strength indication (RSSI) or areference signal received power (RSRP). The beam index and/or sectorindex may be identified by the UE from indexes included in thebeamformed transmissions as described herein. In aspects, the one ormore received signal powers may be measures of signal power (e.g., RSSIor RSRP) of the interfering beamformed transmissions, based on the beamindex and/or sector index, received by the UE. In certain aspects, theUE may also generate unique identifiers for the beam index and/or sectorindex. The feedback report may be transmitted via various types ofmessages, including an acknowledgment (ACK) message, a negative ACK(NACK) message, a channel state information (CSI) report, a randomaccess channel (RACH) message, an interference measurement report, or abeam management report.

Upon receiving a feedback report, the BS may perform various actions toreduce the downlink inter-sector interference encountered by the UE. TheBS may identify the beam that is causing the interference and adjustparameters associated with the beam to reduce the inter-sectorinterference. For instance, the BS may adjust the transmit power of abeam identified in the feedback report, select a different UE fortransmission, switch to single user-MIMO (SU-MIMO) mode, or switch toanother beam than the interfering beam. In SU-MIMO mode, the BS maycommunicate with only a single UE at a time on a particular frequencyresource (e.g., a frequency band or subband), whereas in MU-MIMO mode,the BS may communicate with multiple UEs simultaneously on the samefrequency resource. The BS may perform the one or more actions if thereceived signal power of an interfering transmission is greater than orequal to a threshold value. As an example, the BS may reduce thetransmit power for an interfering beamformed transmission with areported signal power greater than the threshold. This may reduce thesignal strength of the interfering transmission encountered by the UE.As another example, the BS may switch to SU-MIMO to communicate with theUE encountering inter-sector interference. The BS may take anycombination of actions as described herein to reduce the inter-sectorinterference encountered by the UE.

In aspects, the BS may select a different UE to send transmissions thanthe UE associated with the interfering transmission. The BS may schedulethe interfering transmission for a different time slot than that usedfor the UE encountering the inter-sector interference and also replacetransmissions to the interfering UE with transmissions to a UE thatmight not interfere. This may eliminate the inter-sector interferenceassociated with the interfering transmission and also allow the BS toremain in MU-MIMO mode. For example, the BS may select a third UE in thesecond sector of operations 300. The BS may transmit, in the MU-MIMOmode, the first beamformed transmissions using the first beam to thefirst UE in the first sector and third beamformed transmissions using athird beam to the third UE in the second sector at a first time period.Then, the BS may transmit, in the MU-MIMO mode, the second beamformedtransmissions using the second beam to the second UE in the secondsector at a second time period that is different than the first timeperiod.

In aspects, the BS may identify that there are other beams available forcommunicating with the interfering UE than the beam that is causing theinter-sector interference. The BS may transmit the beamformedtransmission using a different beam than the beam causing inter-sectorinterference. For instance, the BS may switch to a secondary beam oflower quality to serve a UE instead of primary beam of higher quality.As used herein, a primary beam may be a beam having higher signalquality than another beam, and a secondary beam may be a beam havinglower signal quality than another beam. The BS may select the secondarybeam if the beam has a quality greater than or equal to a thresholdquality value. As another example, the BS may transmit to the second UEof operations 300 using a different beam than the second beam for thesecond beamformed transmissions.

FIG. 5A illustrates an example coverage cell for a base station where aUE is encountering inter-sector interference, in accordance with certainaspects of the present disclosure. As shown, the BS 510 has a coveragecell 502 partitioned into three sectors having a first sector 504, asecond sector 506, and a third sector 508. The sectors 504, 506, 508 maybe linked to antennas arranged in different azimuthal orientations(e.g., 120° spacing).

In this example, the cell 502 provides links to UEs including a first UE520 a, a second UE 520 b, a third UE 520 c, a fourth UE 520 d, and afifth UE 520 e. The first UE 520 a may receive, in the first sector 504,beamformed downlink transmissions on a first beam 530 a and interferingbeamformed downlink transmissions on a second beam 530 b and a thirdbeam 530 c used to communicate with second and third UEs 520 b, 520 c,respectively. As illustrated, the second and third beams 530 b, 530 cmay be directed to the second and third UEs 520 b, 520 c in the secondand third sectors 506, 508, respectively, but the interfering beamformedtransmissions on these beams may reflect into the first sector 504causing inter-sector interference with the first UE 520 a. The first UE520 a may generate a feedback report indicating inter-sectorinterference encountered by the first UE 520 a in the first sector 504due to the interfering beamformed transmissions. The BS 510 may take onemore actions based on the feedback report to reduce the inter-sectorinterference encountered by the first UE 520 a in the first sector 504.

FIG. 5B illustrates an example coverage cell for a base station wherevarious actions are taken to reduce the inter-sector interferenceencountered by a UE, in accordance with certain aspects of the presentdisclosure. The BS 510 may reduce the transmit power of the beamformedtransmissions on the third beam 530 c. As another example, the BS 510may select to transmit to the fourth and/or fifth UEs 520 d, 520 e onbeams 530 d, 530 e, which are directed away from the first UE 520 a,during the same time period used to transmit to the first UE 520 a. Asthe beams 530 d and 530 e are directed away from the first UE 520 a, thefirst UE 520 a may not encounter inter-sector interference from suchbeams. The BS 510 may also select a different beam to transmit to thesecond UE 520 c, such as the secondary beam 532 c. In this example, thesecondary beam 532 c may have a lower quality than the primary beam 530c.

FIG. 6 illustrates a communications device 600 (e.g., BS 110) that mayinclude various components (e.g., corresponding to means-plus-functioncomponents) configured to perform operations for the techniquesdisclosed herein, such as the operations illustrated in FIG. 3. Thecommunications device 600 includes a processing system 602 coupled to atransceiver 608. The transceiver 608 (e.g., a transmitter and/orreceiver) is configured to transmit and/or receive signals for thecommunications device 600 via an antenna 610, such as the various signaldescribed herein. The processing system 602 may be configured to performprocessing functions for the communications device 600, includingprocessing signals received and/or to be transmitted by thecommunications device 600.

The processing system 602 includes a processor 604 coupled to acomputer-readable medium/memory 612 via a bus 606. In certain aspects,the computer-readable medium/memory 612 is configured to storeinstructions that when executed by processor 604, cause the processor604 to perform the operations illustrated in FIG. 3, or other operationsfor performing the various techniques discussed herein.

In certain aspects, the processing system 602 may further include atransmit component 614 for performing the operations illustrated in FIG.3. Additionally, the processing system 602 may include a receive 616 forperforming the operations illustrated in FIG. 3. Additionally, theprocessing system 602 may include a taking action component 618 forperforming the operations illustrated in FIG. 3. Additionally, theprocessing system 602 may include a controlling component 620 forperforming the operations illustrated in FIG. 3. The transmit component614, receive component 616, taking action component 618, and controllingcomponent 620 may be coupled to the processor 604 via bus 606. Incertain aspects, the transmit component 614, receive component 616,taking action component 618, and controlling component 620 may behardware circuits. In certain aspects, the transmit component 614,receive component 616, taking action component 618, and controllingcomponent 620 may be software components that are executed and run onprocessor 604.

FIG. 7 illustrates a communications device 700 (e.g., UE 120) that mayinclude various components (e.g., corresponding to means-plus-functioncomponents) configured to perform operations for the techniquesdisclosed herein, such as the operations illustrated in FIG. 4. Thecommunications device 700 includes a processing system 702 coupled to atransceiver 708. The transceiver 708 (e.g., a transmitter and/orreceiver) is configured to transmit and/or receive signals for thecommunications device 700 via an antenna 710, such as the various signaldescribed herein. The processing system 702 may be configured to performprocessing functions for the communications device 700, includingprocessing signals received and/or to be transmitted by thecommunications device 700.

The processing system 702 includes a processor 704 coupled to acomputer-readable medium/memory 712 via a bus 706. In certain aspects,the computer-readable medium/memory 712 is configured to storeinstructions that when executed by processor 704, cause the processor704 to perform the operations illustrated in FIG. 4, or other operationsfor performing the various techniques discussed herein.

In certain aspects, the processing system 702 may further include atransmit component 714 for performing the operations illustrated in FIG.4. Additionally, the processing system 702 may include a receivecomponent 716 for performing the operations illustrated in FIG. 4.Additionally, the processing system 702 may include a generatingcomponent 718 for performing the operations illustrated in FIG. 4.Additionally, the processing system 702 may include a reportingcomponent 720 for performing the operations illustrated in FIG. 4. Thetransmit component 714, receive component 716, generating component 718,and reporting component 720 may be coupled to the processor 704 via bus706. In certain aspects, the transmit component 714, receive component716, generating component 718, and reporting component 720 may behardware circuits. In certain aspects, the transmit component 714,receive component 716, generating component 718, and reporting component720 may be software components that are executed and run on processor704.

The methods disclosed herein comprise one or more steps or actions forachieving the methods. The method steps and/or actions may beinterchanged with one another without departing from the scope of theclaims. In other words, unless a specific order of steps or actions isspecified, the order and/or use of specific steps and/or actions may bemodified without departing from the scope of the claims.

As used herein, a phrase referring to “at least one of” a list of itemsrefers to any combination of those items, including single members. Asan example, “at least one of: a, b, or c” is intended to cover a, b, c,a-b, a-c, b-c, and a-b-c, as well as any combination with multiples ofthe same element (e.g., a-a, a-a-a, a-a-b, a-a-c, a-b-b, a-c-c, b-b,b-b-b, b-b-c, c-c, and c-c-c or any other ordering of a, b, and c).

As used herein, the term “determining” encompasses a wide variety ofactions. For example, “determining” may include calculating, computing,processing, deriving, investigating, looking up (e.g., looking up in atable, a database or another data structure), ascertaining and the like.Also, “determining” may include receiving (e.g., receiving information),accessing (e.g., accessing data in a memory) and the like. Also,“determining” may include resolving, selecting, choosing, establishingand the like.

The previous description is provided to enable any person skilled in theart to practice the various aspects described herein. Variousmodifications to these aspects will be readily apparent to those skilledin the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied toother aspects. Thus, the claims are not intended to be limited to theaspects shown herein, but is to be accorded the full scope consistentwith the language of the claims, wherein reference to an element in thesingular is not intended to mean “one and only one” unless specificallyso stated, but rather “one or more.” Unless specifically statedotherwise, the term “some” refers to one or more. All structural andfunctional equivalents to the elements of the various aspects describedthroughout this disclosure that are known or later come to be known tothose of ordinary skill in the art are expressly incorporated herein byreference and are intended to be encompassed by the claims. Moreover,nothing disclosed herein is intended to be dedicated to the publicregardless of whether such disclosure is explicitly recited in theclaims. No claim element is to be construed under the provisions of 35U.S.C. § 112(f) unless the element is expressly recited using the phrase“means for” or, in the case of a method claim, the element is recitedusing the phrase “step for.”

The various operations of methods described above may be performed byany suitable means capable of performing the corresponding functions.The means may include various hardware and/or software component(s)and/or module(s), including, but not limited to a circuit, anapplication specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or processor. Generally,where there are operations illustrated in figures, those operations mayhave corresponding counterpart means-plus-function components.

The various illustrative logical blocks, modules and circuits describedin connection with the present disclosure may be implemented orperformed with a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor(DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a fieldprogrammable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device (PLD),discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or anycombination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein.A general-purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in thealternative, the processor may be any commercially available processor,controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also beimplemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a combinationof a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one ormore microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other suchconfiguration.

If implemented in hardware, an example hardware configuration maycomprise a processing system in a wireless node. The processing systemmay be implemented with a bus architecture. The bus may include anynumber of interconnecting buses and bridges depending on the specificapplication of the processing system and the overall design constraints.The bus may link together various circuits including a processor,machine-readable media, and a bus interface. The bus interface may beused to connect a network adapter, among other things, to the processingsystem via the bus. The network adapter may be used to implement thesignal processing functions of the PHY layer. In the case of a userequipment 120 (see FIG. 1), a user interface (e.g., keypad, display,mouse, joystick, etc.) may also be connected to the bus. The bus mayalso link various other circuits such as timing sources, peripherals,voltage regulators, power management circuits, and the like, which arewell known in the art, and therefore, will not be described any further.The processor may be implemented with one or more general-purpose and/orspecial-purpose processors. Examples include microprocessors,microcontrollers, DSP processors, and other circuitry that can executesoftware. Those skilled in the art will recognize how best to implementthe described functionality for the processing system depending on theparticular application and the overall design constraints imposed on theoverall system.

If implemented in software, the functions may be stored or transmittedover as one or more instructions or code on a computer readable medium.Software shall be construed broadly to mean instructions, data, or anycombination thereof, whether referred to as software, firmware,middleware, microcode, hardware description language, or otherwise.Computer-readable media include both computer storage media andcommunication media including any medium that facilitates transfer of acomputer program from one place to another. The processor may beresponsible for managing the bus and general processing, including theexecution of software modules stored on the machine-readable storagemedia. A computer-readable storage medium may be coupled to a processorsuch that the processor can read information from, and write informationto, the storage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium may beintegral to the processor. By way of example, the machine-readable mediamay include a transmission line, a carrier wave modulated by data,and/or a computer readable storage medium with instructions storedthereon separate from the wireless node, all of which may be accessed bythe processor through the bus interface. Alternatively, or in addition,the machine-readable media, or any portion thereof, may be integratedinto the processor, such as the case may be with cache and/or generalregister files. Examples of machine-readable storage media may include,by way of example, RAM (Random Access Memory), flash memory, ROM (ReadOnly Memory), PROM (Programmable Read-Only Memory), EPROM (ErasableProgrammable Read-Only Memory), EEPROM (Electrically ErasableProgrammable Read-Only Memory), registers, magnetic disks, opticaldisks, hard drives, or any other suitable storage medium, or anycombination thereof. The machine-readable media may be embodied in acomputer-program product.

A software module may comprise a single instruction, or manyinstructions, and may be distributed over several different codesegments, among different programs, and across multiple storage media.The computer-readable media may comprise a number of software modules.The software modules include instructions that, when executed by anapparatus such as a processor, cause the processing system to performvarious functions. The software modules may include a transmissionmodule and a receiving module. Each software module may reside in asingle storage device or be distributed across multiple storage devices.By way of example, a software module may be loaded into RAM from a harddrive when a triggering event occurs. During execution of the softwaremodule, the processor may load some of the instructions into cache toincrease access speed. One or more cache lines may then be loaded into ageneral register file for execution by the processor. When referring tothe functionality of a software module below, it will be understood thatsuch functionality is implemented by the processor when executinginstructions from that software module.

Also, any connection is properly termed a computer-readable medium. Forexample, if the software is transmitted from a website, server, or otherremote source using a coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair,digital subscriber line (DSL), or wireless technologies such as infrared(IR), radio, and microwave, then the coaxial cable, fiber optic cable,twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, andmicrowave are included in the definition of medium. Disk and disc, asused herein, include compact disc (CD), laser disc, optical disc,digital versatile disc (DVD), floppy disk, and Blu-ray® disc where disksusually reproduce data magnetically, while discs reproduce dataoptically with lasers. Thus, in some aspects computer-readable media maycomprise non-transitory computer-readable media (e.g., tangible media).In addition, for other aspects computer-readable media may comprisetransitory computer-readable media (e.g., a signal). Combinations of theabove should also be included within the scope of computer-readablemedia.

Thus, certain aspects may comprise a computer program product forperforming the operations presented herein. For example, such a computerprogram product may comprise a computer-readable medium havinginstructions stored (and/or encoded) thereon, the instructions beingexecutable by one or more processors to perform the operations describedherein, for example, instructions for performing the operationsdescribed herein and illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4.

Further, it should be appreciated that modules and/or other appropriatemeans for performing the methods and techniques described herein can bedownloaded and/or otherwise obtained by a user terminal and/or basestation as applicable. For example, such a device can be coupled to aserver to facilitate the transfer of means for performing the methodsdescribed herein. Alternatively, various methods described herein can beprovided via storage means (e.g., RAM, ROM, a physical storage mediumsuch as a compact disc (CD) or floppy disk, etc.), such that a userterminal and/or base station can obtain the various methods uponcoupling or providing the storage means to the device. Moreover, anyother suitable technique for providing the methods and techniquesdescribed herein to a device can be utilized.

It is to be understood that the claims are not limited to the preciseconfiguration and components illustrated above. Various modifications,changes and variations may be made in the arrangement, operation anddetails of the methods and apparatus described above without departingfrom the scope of the claims.

1. A method of wireless communication by a base station (BS),comprising: transmitting, in a multi-user multiple-input andmultiple-output (MU-MIMO) mode, first beamformed transmissions using afirst beam to a first user equipment (UE) in a first sector and secondbeamformed transmissions using a second beam to a second UE in a secondsector, wherein the BS is configured to control a plurality of sectorscomprising the first sector and the second sector, wherein the firstbeamformed transmissions comprise a scheduling control message thatindicates a first beam index associated with the first beam, a firstsector index associated with the first sector and the first beam, asecond beam index associated with the second beam, and a second sectorindex associated with the second sector and the second beam; receiving,from the first UE, a feedback report indicating inter-sectorinterference encountered by the first UE in the first sector due to thesecond beamformed transmissions; and taking one or more actions based onthe feedback report to reduce the inter-sector interference encounteredby the first UE in the first sector.
 2. The method of claim 1, whereineach of the first beamformed transmissions indicates the first beamindex associated with the first beam and the first sector indexassociated with the first sector, and wherein each of the secondbeamformed transmissions indicate the second beam index associated withthe second beam and the second sector index associated with the secondsector.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein: each of the first beamformedtransmissions and the second beamformed transmissions comprises at leastone of: a beam training transmission, a beam management transmission, adata transmission, a synchronization signal, or a reference signal; andthe reference signal comprises at least one of: a channel stateinformation reference signal (CSI-RS) or a demodulation reference signal(DM-RS).
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first beamformedtransmissions are transmitted via a first sector antenna and the secondbeamformed transmissions are transmitted via a second sector antenna,and wherein the first sector antenna is arranged in a differentazimuthal orientation than the second sector antenna.
 5. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the feedback report includes one or more receivedsignal powers of the second beamformed transmissions, a beam indexassociated with each of the one or more received signal powers, and asector index associated with each of the one or more received signalpowers.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the feedback reportcomprises receiving the feedback report via at least one of: anacknowledgment (ACK) message, a negative ACK (NACK) message, a channelstate information (CSI) report, an interference measurement report, or abeam management report.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein taking the oneor more actions comprises at least one of: adjusting a transmit powerfor the second beamformed transmissions transmitted on the second beambased on the second sector being identified in the feedback report;transmitting to the second UE using a different beam than the secondbeam for the second beamformed transmissions; or transmitting to thefirst UE in single-user MIMO mode.
 8. The method of claim 1, whereintaking one or more actions comprises: selecting a third UE in the secondsector; transmitting, in the MU-MIMO mode, the first beamformedtransmissions using the first beam to the first UE in the first sectorand third beamformed transmissions using a third beam to the third UE inthe second sector at a first time period; and transmitting, in theMU-MIMO mode, the second beamformed transmissions using the second beamto the second UE in the second sector at a second time period that isdifferent than the first time period.
 9. An apparatus of wirelesscommunication, comprising: at least one processor; and a memory coupledto the at least one processor, the memory comprising code executable bythe at least one processor to cause the apparatus to: transmit, in amulti-user multiple-input and multiple-output (MU-MIMO) mode, firstbeamformed transmissions using a first beam to a first user equipment(UE) in a first sector and second beamformed transmissions using asecond beam to a second UE in a second sector, wherein the apparatus isconfigured to control a plurality of sectors comprising the first sectorand the second sector, wherein the first beamformed transmissionscomprise a scheduling control message that indicates a first beam indexassociated with the first beam, a first sector index associated with thefirst sector and the first beam, a second beam index associated with thesecond beam, and a second sector index associated with the second sectorand the second beam; receive, from the first UE, a feedback reportindicating inter-sector interference encountered by the first UE in thefirst sector due to the second beamformed transmissions; and take one ormore actions based on the feedback report to reduce the inter-sectorinterference encountered by the first UE in the first sector.
 10. Theapparatus of claim 9, wherein each of the first beamformed transmissionsindicates the first beam index associated with the first beam and thefirst sector index associated with the first sector, and wherein each ofthe second beamformed transmissions indicate the second beam indexassociated with the second beam and the second sector index associatedwith the second sector.
 11. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein: each ofthe first beamformed transmissions and the second beamformedtransmissions comprises at least one of: a beam training transmission, abeam management transmission, a data transmission, a synchronizationsignal, or a reference signal; and the reference signal comprises atleast one of: a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) or ademodulation reference signal (DM-RS).
 12. The apparatus of claim 9,wherein the first beamformed transmissions are transmitted via a firstsector antenna and the second beamformed transmissions are transmittedvia a second sector antenna, and wherein the first sector antenna isarranged in a different azimuthal orientation than the second sectorantenna.
 13. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the feedback reportincludes one or more received signal powers of the second beamformedtransmissions, a beam index associated with each of the one or morereceived signal powers, and a sector index associated with each of theone or more received signal powers.
 14. The apparatus of claim 9,wherein the code executable by the at least one processor to cause theapparatus to receive the feedback report comprises code executable bythe at least one processor to cause the apparatus to receive thefeedback report via at least one of: an acknowledgment (ACK) message, anegative ACK (NACK) message, a channel state information (CSI) report,an interference measurement report, or a beam management report.
 15. Theapparatus of claim 9, wherein the code executable by the at least oneprocessor to cause the apparatus to take the one or more actionscomprises code executable by the at least one processor to cause theapparatus to at least one of: adjust a transmit power for the secondbeamformed transmissions transmitted on the second beam based on thesecond sector being identified in the feedback report; transmit to thesecond UE using a different beam than the second beam for the secondbeamformed transmissions; or transmit to the first UE in single-userMIMO mode.
 16. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the code executable bythe at least one processor to cause the apparatus to take the one ormore actions comprises code executable by the at least one processor tocause the apparatus to: select a third UE in the second sector;transmit, in the MU-MIMO mode, the first beamformed transmissions usingthe first beam to the first UE in the first sector and third beamformedtransmissions using a third beam to the third UE in the second sector ata first time period; and transmit, in the MU-MIMO mode, the secondbeamformed transmissions using the second beam to the second UE in thesecond sector at a second time period that is different than the firsttime period.
 17. A computer readable medium having computer executablecode stored thereon for wireless communication by a base station (BS),comprising: code for transmitting, in a multi-user multiple-input andmultiple-output (MU-MIMO) mode, first beamformed transmissions using afirst beam to a first user equipment (UE) in a first sector and secondbeamformed transmissions using a second beam to a second UE in a secondsector, wherein the BS is configured to control a plurality of sectorscomprising the first sector and the second sector, wherein the firstbeamformed transmissions comprise a scheduling control message thatindicates a first beam index associated with the first beam, a firstsector index associated with the first sector and the first beam, asecond beam index associated with the second beam, and a second sectorindex associated with the second sector and the second beam; code forreceiving, from the first UE, a feedback report indicating inter-sectorinterference encountered by the first UE in the first sector due to thesecond beamformed transmissions; and code for taking one or more actionsbased on the feedback report to reduce the inter-sector interferenceencountered by the first UE in the first sector.
 18. The computerreadable medium of claim 17, wherein each of the first beamformedtransmissions indicates the first beam index associated with the firstbeam and the first sector index associated with the first sector, andwherein each of the second beamformed transmissions indicate the secondbeam index associated with the second beam and the second sector indexassociated with the second sector.
 19. The computer readable medium ofclaim 17, wherein: each of the first beamformed transmissions and thesecond beamformed transmissions comprises at least one of: a beamtraining transmission, a beam management transmission, a datatransmission, a synchronization signal, or a reference signal; and thereference signal comprises at least one of: a channel state informationreference signal (CSI-RS) or a demodulation reference signal (DM-RS).20. The computer readable medium of claim 17, wherein the firstbeamformed transmissions are transmitted via a first sector antenna andthe second beamformed transmissions are transmitted via a second sectorantenna, and wherein the first sector antenna is arranged in a differentazimuthal orientation than the second sector antenna.
 21. The computerreadable medium of claim 17, wherein the feedback report includes one ormore received signal powers of the second beamformed transmissions, abeam index associated with each of the one or more received signalpowers, and a sector index associated with each of the one or morereceived signal powers.
 22. The computer readable medium of claim 17,wherein the code for receiving the feedback report comprises code forreceiving the feedback report via at least one of: an acknowledgment(ACK) message, a negative ACK (NACK) message, a channel stateinformation (CSI) report, an interference measurement report, or a beammanagement report.
 23. The computer readable medium of claim 17, whereinthe code for taking the one or more actions comprises at least one of:code for adjusting a transmit power for the second beamformedtransmissions transmitted on the second beam based on the second sectorbeing identified in the feedback report; code for transmitting to thesecond UE using a different beam than the second beam for the secondbeamformed transmissions; or code for transmitting to the first UE insingle-user MIMO mode.
 24. The computer readable medium of claim 17,wherein the code for taking one or more actions comprises: code forselecting a third UE in the second sector; code for transmitting, in theMU-MIMO mode, the first beamformed transmissions using the first beam tothe first UE in the first sector and third beamformed transmissionsusing a third beam to the third UE in the second sector at a first timeperiod; and code for transmitting, in the MU-MIMO mode, the secondbeamformed transmissions using the second beam to the second UE in thesecond sector at a second time period that is different than the firsttime period.
 25. An apparatus for wireless communication, comprising:means for transmitting, in a multi-user multiple-input andmultiple-output (MU-MIMO) mode, first beamformed transmissions using afirst beam to a first user equipment (UE) in a first sector and secondbeamformed transmissions using a second beam to a second UE in a secondsector, wherein the apparatus is configured to control a plurality ofsectors comprising the first sector and the second sector, wherein thefirst beamformed transmissions comprise a scheduling control messagethat indicates a first beam index associated with the first beam, afirst sector index associated with the first sector and the first beam,a second beam index associated with the second beam, and a second sectorindex associated with the second sector and the second beam; means forreceiving, from the first UE, a feedback report indicating inter-sectorinterference encountered by the first UE in the first sector due to thesecond beamformed transmissions; and means for taking one or moreactions based on the feedback report to reduce the inter-sectorinterference encountered by the first UE in the first sector.
 26. Theapparatus of claim 25, wherein each of the first beamformedtransmissions indicates the first beam index associated with the firstbeam and the first sector index associated with the first sector, andwherein each of the second beamformed transmissions indicate the secondbeam index associated with the second beam and the second sector indexassociated with the second sector.
 27. The apparatus of claim 25,wherein: each of the first beamformed transmissions and the secondbeamformed transmissions comprises at least one of: a beam trainingtransmission, a beam management transmission, a data transmission, asynchronization signal, or a reference signal; and the reference signalcomprises at least one of: a channel state information reference signal(CSI-RS) or a demodulation reference signal (DM-RS).
 28. The apparatusof claim 25, wherein the first beamformed transmissions are transmittedvia a first sector antenna and the second beamformed transmissions aretransmitted via a second sector antenna, and wherein the first sectorantenna is arranged in a different azimuthal orientation than the secondsector antenna.
 29. The apparatus of claim 25, wherein the feedbackreport includes one or more received signal powers of the secondbeamformed transmissions, a beam index associated with each of the oneor more received signal powers, and a sector index associated with eachof the one or more received signal powers.
 30. The apparatus of claim25, wherein the means for receiving the feedback report comprises meansfor receiving the feedback report via at least one of: an acknowledgment(ACK) message, a negative ACK (NACK) message, a channel stateinformation (CSI) report, an interference measurement report, or a beammanagement report.